Nim's Island DVD Review

In Nim’s Island, Abigail Bresling lives on a secluded island with her dad and has animals for friends. Kidzworld reviews this new adventure flick.

In Nim's Island, Abigail Breslin lives on a secluded island with her scientist dad and has animals for friends. Kidzworld reviews this adventure flick, which is now available on DVD.

Paradise City

Abigail Breslin stars in Nim's Island as an 11 year old girl who lives on a tropical island with her scientist dad, Jack (Gerard Butler), and a bunch of funny animal friends including a sea lion, a lizard, and a pelican. Nim and her dad keep in touch with family and friends in the real world using the internet and satellite phones and in her free time Nim loves to read books about the adventures of her favorite hero, Alex Rover.

S.O.S.

When Jack goes out to sea in search of a new species of plankton, his little boat is overcome by a typhoon and his sail and satellite phone are destroyed. Nim starts to get a bit freaked out when he hasn't shown up for a few days, and when a bunch of Australian tourists and cruise line agents show up wanting to make the island a vacation spot, Nim doesn't know what to do.

Writer to the Rescue?

It just so happens that Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), who writes Nim's favorite books about her alter-ego, Alex Rover, has sent Nim's dad a question about volcanoes by email. Nim pleads with Alexandra to help, thinking she's her hero, but in reality, the writer is an agoraphobe (someone who is afraid of being in crowds, public places, or open areas) and can barely manage to leave her apartment to get the mail! Will Nim be able to convince Alexandra to take on the adventure of her life to save Nim's dad and the island?

DVD Features

The Nim’s Island DVD has a bunch of decent features, including the Adventure Commentary with stars Abigail Breslin and Jodi Foster. There’s also an audio commentary with the directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett. Then you’ll find three deleted scenes and three features, Nim's Friends, Abigail's Journey, and Working on Water, which give a behind the scenes look at the film. If you’re crazy about previews, you’ll also see a bunch, including Ice Age 3, Horton Hears a Who! and a few others.

The Bottom Line

There is a lot to like about this movie. Abigail Breslin is a great young actress and is perfect for the role of Nim, and Gerard Butler and Jodie Foster pull off their parts fairly well, even though they're both used to more dramatic roles. Nim's animal friends, especially the lizard, steal a lot of scenes and the movie has some pretty funny moments. The only weird part was when the tourists come to the island and Nim uses Home-Alone-style trickery to scare them off. This part of the movie didn’t really fit. Also, it takes a really long time for Alexandra to get to the island and for the real adventure to begin. Still, this is definitely a movie good enough for the whole family to enjoy.

Entertainment In The Forums

“Instruction in world history in the so-called high schools is even today in a very sorry condition. Few teachers understand that the study of history can never be to learn historical dates and events by heart and recite them by rote; that what matters is not whether the child knows exactly when this battle or that was fought, when a general was born, or even when a monarch (usually a very insignificant one) came into the crown of his forefathers. No, by the living God, this is very unimportant. To 'learn' history means to seek and find the forces which are the causes leading to those effects which we subsequently perceive as historical events.”